The match was short (one hour), but the message was long...the Violets are focused and ready for the challenge.

The New York University Women's Volleyball Team produced a dominating performance in sweeping Brooklyn College in the opening round of the 2021 NCAA Tournament. The Violets (27-1) never trailed in defeating the Bulldogs (16-13) in three sets (25-6, 25-5, 25-16).

NYU is the top seed in the Hoboken Regional, which is being held at Canavan Arena on the campus of Stevens Institute of Technology. 

"We were super efficient," said Head Coach Andrew Brown. "They went out there and didn't take a play off. I think we displayed the result of working so hard all season and putting in the effort to become a high seed in this tournament. We went out there and had a lot of fun and played with a lot of confidence."

NYU scored the first 10 points of the match. The rout started with an Abby Ausmus (San Diego, CA/La Jolla Country Day School) kill followed by nine straight service points by Haley Holz (Palatine, IL/Palatine).

The second set started off a bit closer. NYU was only ahead 5-3 before embarking on a 6-0 run. After a Bulldog point, the Violets scored another six straight and completed the set on a 14-1 streak.

NYU scored the first six points of the final set and every active team member made an appearance on the court as the Violets clinched the opening-round win. The final point was recorded on a kill by Olivia Lewandowski (San Diego, CA/Del Norte), who recorded a match-high 12 while committing only one error (.579).

"My energy was pretty high and the team's energy helped fuel me to a consistent performance," Lewandowski revealed. "It's so much fun to be in this tournament, and we've come in with so much energy and excitement and determination to go very far."

Overall, the Violets hit .385 for the match with 43 kills and only eight errors. 

Holz finished with six kills (.417), four services aces and four digs. Ausmus connected on both of her attack attempts.

"Ths is really exciting. Being here is such a big milestone for this program," Ausmus said. "I know the seniors are really appreciative of this opportunity because we've never experienced it before. It's making this last year really exciting and we're really grateful."  

Lindsey Hirano (South Pasadena, CA/South Pasadena) also had four service aces and added a match-high 16 digs. Zephyr Ning (San Jose, CA/The Harker School) led the way with 16 assists, while Dominique Drust (Coto de Caza, CA/Santa Margarita Catholic) had 14. Both Julia Passante (Norwood, NJ/Northern Valley Regional at Old Tappan) and Emily Kleck (Indianapolis, IN/Cathedral) contributed four blocks as NYU completed a classic team victory. 

"Today was an ultimate team effort," Brown added. "We definitely mixed up our rotation with players and everybody went in there and executed the game plan. We made very few errors and that puts a lot of pressure on our opponent."

NYU advances to play Clarkson University on Saturday at 2:30pm in Hoboken.